Everything you see here has been painted since 20 December 2016. Proud of this lot as I haven't painted much in the last couple of years!

Age of Sigmar is the current flavour here in the Land of the Fox. Chaos is of course the chosen army and everything you see is part of my Cult of the Pentagram. This is my way of painting units from different factions and calling them an army to assuage my squirrel approach to distractions...

The Five Factions then are:Skaven

Plague Monks

Packmaster

Giant Rats

I've always liked the rats but never liked Warhammer Fantasy enough as a game to paint a horde army. Age of Sigmar is a lovely simple game and is a breath of fresh air for me and fantasy. I'm really a sci-fi nut but am quite enjoying my stay in the fantasy world until 40K sorts itself out.Daemons

Khorne Bloodletters

I already have a rather large Daemons army which started way back when this blog first came online. I'm therefore rather attached to it and it's going to be fun adding new units!

Obviously I started with a Khorne unit and the swords show some new techniques with regard washes and dry brushing. Really quite pleased with the results.

Beastmen

Gors

This is another faction/race that I've always liked so they are perfect for my Cult. The skin colour is again washes over a base paint and I was very pleased to not have to do highlights!

Khorne Bloodbound

Blood Warriors

Blood Reavers

Ah yes. Khorne. You knew these boys would be in here right? All the above come from the Age of Sigmar starter set and jolly nice models they are too.

Disciples of Tzeentch

Magister

Chaos Avengers Spawn

Iron Spawn

Wolverine

Hawkeye

Quicksilver

Hulk

Spider Spawn

Love the new Tzeentch models and many more will be coming to a blog near you soon. The Spawn above originally arrived at the Fox abode some 10 years ago when 40K Apocalypse first appeared and have finally seen paint!

And here's everything in handy group shots...

That's 105 models done. A huge number to do and once my two week hobby holiday is over I'll be straight back to it. Yes that's right I'm taking a short break to recharge the painting batteries after the intensity of the last week's of the challenge.

For the moment you'll either find me defending the Earth against robot dinosaurs (PS4) in Horizon Zero Dawn or trying to find humanity a new home (Xbox One) in Mass Effect Andromeda.

When I come back there are some Minotaurs demanding attention as it's the Beastmen's turn for some reinforcements!

20 Mar 2017

I was trailing behind on the 365 challenge. 3 months in and I only had 56 completed.

That has all changed! Finally finishing off the first tranche of 66 Epic figures I've managed to take the tally from 56 up to 122. Perfect!I'm well ahead now! I've also managed to squeeze in some extra stuff too.

First up then......6mm Iron Warriors.

36 Stands of Marines
18 Rhinos
8 Land Raiders
4 Contemptors

Doing the stripes was.....err....fun.

As we are planning to play Epic shortly I thought we better get prepared. The game requires blast markers for in game effects and I'd seen a nice tutorial on how to make some cool ones. Gave it a try and they worked out okay I think.

I've also been trying to prepare the next load of bits for the Iron Warriors but made some assumptions about how compatible 6mm stuff is. The turrets were from Vanguard and is transpires that their stuff, whilst lovely, is true scale. I posted this piccie to an Epic group on Facebook so people could laugh at me and my Noobiness but the owner of Vanguard responded offering to take them back for a full refund. Very Kind. In truth I'll probably just buy the tank chassis's that fit them. I still need predators after all!

At work I've been making progress on the 28MM Iron Warriors. Slowly but surely painting the hazard stripes on their pads. They're home now for finishing so I am very much in the hope that within the next 7-10 days I'll have another 66 figures to add to the tally. Painting the stripes has been less frustrating than I would have imagined. I am really looking forward to seeing the breachers finished as they look so cool!

I've painted sooooo many stripes lately that I really need a break from Iron Warriors and the thought of painting some Orks is making me smile. Quick and fun and dirty! With that in mind I have started getting some Epic Ork stuff prepped at work ready to spray and shift home.

Who doesn't love likkle dreddies?

On top of all this I've managed to squeeze in a couple of games. No. 17 Was AoS with the Seraphon getting a right smacking from the combined forces of Undead and Chaos. Bastards.

Game 18 was a quick game of X-Wing with Urn whilst we chin-wagged about Epic. Scum and Villainy earned their name as they stopped the heroic rebels from collecting vital cargo. That was medical supplies! Bastards!

Tomorrow night is a test game of Epic for me and Urn and I'm really looking forward to it!

15 Mar 2017

They say that every cloud has a silver lining. The metaphorical cloud in this case is the fact I'm a hobby magpie, constantly grabbing the shiny things from my garage and starting them and not being quite so good at finishing them before the next shiny thing grabs my attention. This can leave large amounts of half finished figures strewn all over the study, steadily encroaching out of the zone I'm allowed for "Daddy's little men". The silver lining, to stretch this metaphor almost to breaking point, is that sometimes the moons align, the Scooby gang catch the baddy and I get a load of stuff finished at the same time.First up, some Salamanders with flamers. I really wanted a unit with the throwback 30k flamers which pay homage to the flamers released in the first ever space marine box in the early 80's, the one with the beakies in. No real plan for these, but the Salamander legion do love them some flames so I'm sure they'll get some use. They were a legion that resisted Horus' betrayal of the Emperor and were mostly massacred for their troubles by the traitor legions in an ambush on Istvaan (boo, hiss).

They'll go nicely with my other Salamanders and I tried to get some muzzle burn damage on the flamers. Decals applied by my own fair hand on one shoulderpad and flames handpainted on the other shoulderpad to hopefully appease both sides of the decal schism (or perhaps to be considered a heretic by both sides!).Next up, some more hot death in the form of some Thousand Sons Plasma dudes.

They would ideally be wearing oven gloves as plasma weapons are extremely temperamental can kill the wielder if your dice are bad enough. So no bad dice out there to stay safe kids. They originally had converted autocannons, but you know how sometimes you just get a model build wrong? Took me 2 weeks to admit it to myself as I had a sulk about it, so off went the autcannons and on went the plasmas. I'm so pleased I did that now.

To support these chaps are twenty members of an assault squad

I see these fellas as the glory boys, laughing at the tactical squads who trudge through the mud as these guys zoom overhead, making themselves a perfect target against the sky no doubt. Sort of like how the RAF and army consider each other. So lots of gold and fancy decals showing how much they like flying (birds head on the right shoulder pad, flying scarab on the top of the jump pack).

I once again showed a cavalier disregard for the make of jump packs in existence during the heresy and used far cheaper 40k ones ( I could buy three units like this for the price of the proper FW one). All the armour is the correct mark (IV and VI) as I do have some standards... the 30k world is probably as close as GW games get to historical gaming with regards people worrying about exact markings, colours, who fought with whom, etc, but I think we all have to find a level we're comfortable with these things. The heads are the simply superb Forgeworld upgrade ones for the most part and using these covers a multitude of sins in my eyes! So look at the pretty heads, not the jump packs...

Some nice chunky axes and swords in the unit and some marines with their helmets off, because it appears to be a tradition that someone in every marine unit won't wear the hermetically sealed life support and vital armour because he wants the enemy to see him snarling...... You can just imagine the conversation

"Sorry Amon, you're the last one here, so you have to leave your helmet behind today and grimace for the next 3 hours about the grim darkness of our present"

"But I did it last time! Isn't it Azhek's turn?"

"Watch it or you'll be assigned a plasma gun like Hotep was after he complained"And finally, 32 more gobbos to go with the ones I did a few weeks ago.

Same recipe as the last ones and I was regretting deciding upon two highlight layers on the skin by the time I got to the second one...

These lads will be trampling onto the gaming table shortly and then probably promptly running off again. I'm hoping to have time to bring some crazed fanatics and netters to the challenge, but I shall have to see how the week goes as time has gotten away from me a little!

8 Mar 2017

The winds screamed across the
Verdigris Plains as if the sky lamented past horrors witnessed on the ferrous
dunes. The Dead had come back. A column of the soulless, returned upon the whim
of the Dark Heart that led them. The shifting sands churning as the debris of
the past stirred at the presence of such malevolence and the Dead came back.

A brilliance burst over the scene.
Pure light from above. Not sunlight piercing the brown clouds of dust but light
spilling forth from heaven. A hated light that caused anger to rise within the
Dark Heart.

With the eye-aching rays gleaming
from spear tips, scale and totems, the Seraphon stepped upon the plains with claws
biting deep into the particulate remains of whatever doomed past had been
ground down to form the rolling dry vista between the two forces. Given the isolation
of the place, it was clear that the appearance of the Saurus was no coincidence
and neither side paused to ready themselves for what was to come.

Moving at speed the long legs of the
Lizards drove into the metallic dust that whipped around them as the wind
gusted and rolled clouds of stinging brown filings into the air hiding the
enemy from sight but they ploughed forward with intent.

Bursting through the ferrous curtain,
the dead hooves of fleshless horses carried their riders into the lines of the
advancing Seraphon. Skulking at the front of the lizard lines was the low
barbed shaped of a spiny Razordon which bristled in defence and braced itself
to meet the charge but it was not enough as lances splintered against scale and
the lizard joined the dead of the dunes trampled under the impact of the Dark
Heart’s cavalry.

In the confusion caused by the
swirling cloak of dark cinders the battle lines started to merge with hulking
Kroxigor smashing into the all but blinded skeletal archers holding the Undead’s
right flank. Mighty overhead strikes shattered skulls and long-bones alike
before the largest of the mighty lizards swept his heavy-headed club through
the front ranks flinging fragments of their opponents across the filthy battlefield.
But the Dead came back

Gaining traction on the sliding ash
and wastes, both sides surged into a swirling melee. The spears and claws of
the Seraphon met the hoof and lance of the Undead knights as the Seraphon tried
to dispatch the riders before skeletal reinforcements could arrive. But the
Dead came back.

The Dark Heart sensed he had the
measure of what he faced and set his standard in the ground confident in the
forces under his thrall. The unholy banner radiated its necromantic power
quickening the pace of the massed reanimated dead. His mark made, the dark
armoured form swept from the dune tops to support the beleaguered archers and
to taste the life essence so evident in the Kroxigor. Streaking from cover a
previously unseen Salamander sprang towards the Dark Heart as if driven by some
unseen will. Its distended maw open as it charged disgorging venom and acid
bile over the material form of the Dark Heart. Staggered and reeling the Necromancer
had no defence against the Salamander as it leapt upon him shredding the still dissolving
form with its claws and pulping it into the dunes.

In the grand melee the silence of the
dead was lost under the roars of the Saurans as lines of infantry ground
together, each struggling for footing on the never-still drifts they fought
over. Hoping to break the wall of un-living bone, the Seraphon pushed forward
with the thrust being dominated by the juggernaut form of a Bastiladon shooting
searing beams of etheric light which obliterated the skeletons. But the dead
came back.

As the Undead reformed they managed to
slowly surround the increasingly outnumbered lizards. With the archers and Dark
Heart now gone the Kroxigor and Salamander struck the horde that was clubbing
and stabbing at the mighty dinosaur.

Despite their arrival, the enormous
shell of the Bastiladon was not enough to shield it and the massive form
slumped to the ground with the skinks riding aloft soon meeting their end as
they were dragged from their perches and dispatched.

The enraged Kroxigor waded through
the remaining skeletons roaring is defiance. At last, thinking his work done,
his guard dropped. The howling wind and driving ash had blinded him to the last
of his quarry until they lurched once more from the obscuring clouds of dust.
The dead had come back.

Hollow eyes betrayed no emotion as
the lances of the corpse riders pierced the armoured flank of the mighty
lizard. His death rattle was lost to the storm, whipped away leaving no way on
knowing if the mysterious forces that had sent them had achieved their goals or
not.

Wargaming Links

Welcome!!!

Welcome one and all

Well this blog has been running for a few years now. It has gone through peaks andtroughs of activity as real life forces our collective hobby time to take a back burner. But we are still here and working hard.

We have taken a group decision to drive up the number of posts and you will see that we have started to build up an impressive set of Horus Heresy 30 k armies as well.

We have also launched into a wider portfolio of games of all shapes and sizes.

The list of games you will see in the posts just about cover the full spectrum of the games in common usage out there. Expect to see stuff about 40k, 30k, Pulp City, Pulp Alley, DZC, Infinity, 7TV and others. Maybe. Assuming we get to them all.